2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 4)

2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 4)
This is the final excerpt from this year's address. I trust that these have been a blessing to you in some way as you have read through them. If something has spiked an interest, please leave a comment in the comment sections under each post.

Call To Service
Ministry. What a powerful word. It often brings frustration, anticipation, anxiety, joy, fear and wonder. Sometimes all of these feelings come at once. It produces a sense of inadequateness and a statement such as, “Who, me? What do I have to offer?” While all at the same time a deep peace that only comes from being and doing what the Lord Jesus Christ wants! I believe that ministry is not just a thing we do. It is more than preaching, teaching, singing or serving. I see ministry as a life style, which includes these things along with who we are day by day outside of these activities. So when asked about ministry, instead of asking yourself what I can do, ask, “What am I already doing in my life now and how can I use them to further the Kingdom of God?” There is not one of us that are not already in some form or another, involved in ministry now. However; I believe that there is not one of us, who could not do more for the building of the Kingdom of God. There are so many more people who need the Lord, and God has given to us the opportunity and responsibility to reach them. We are a T.E.A.M.: Together Everyone Achieves More. Let’s lock arms together in prayer, service, worship, prayer, surrender, fellowship, dreaming, laboring, prayer, ministry, reaching out, contacting for an impact to connect and prayer. Most of all PRAYER!

The time has come for all believers in and disciples of Jesus Christ, that we can no longer be consumer based Christians. By this I mean, receiving more from the ministry of the church than we put into it. Sitting back and saying: Feed me, teach me, serve me and meet my needs. This type of Christianity will spiritually and emotionally bankrupt a church. You can withdraw only so much before there is nothing left. Just as the world needs to be an industrialized people, so does the church. By this I mean, just as the world needs goods produced, the church needs to have goods produced. As we minister to lost people around us, we must be producing goods (ministries) for them to consume. In today’s society and culture, whether it is right or wrong, people will not just come to church because it is the right thing to do. Just as people shop at certain stores for various reasons for getting their personal needs met, they also judge their church attendance with in the same criteria. Just as people decide as to their return to a store if their needs are being met or not … they need to know and experience their true need, not felt needs, are being met. What is this need? Are they coming into a personal, vibrant, soul cleansing, life empowering relationship with Christ Jesus? As we reach out and reach in the church walls with the ministries of the church, we must positively answer this question. Once again if we do not ask this question or do not make the required adjustments to do this for our ministry community, we have failed them miserably. To do this, we must be focused on the Kingdom of God.

“A kingdom-focused church is clear on two points: stewardship and ministry. Stewardship is vertical in the sense that a local church is under the authority and commission of the Father. It is His will, His truth and His work that we do. We focus on Him; we serve Him and not ourselves. Ministry is horizontal in the sense that a church focuses on people. We focus not on ourselves but on our stewardship under God to serve his people. We preach God’s Word to God’s people. We equip God’s people for God’s work. We take God’s gospel to the people in our community. It is about Him (God) and them (God’s people).”

“A true focus begins with God and moves to people whom God loves and desires to be in relationship with Him. Methods, programs, worship services, events, activities and the like all come after a kingdom focus in a church. Only with this order of focus will other priorities and programs be successful.”

“A local church is a kingdom community of believers in dynamic fellowship under Christ’s lordship. Its purpose is to establish the kingdom as it fulfills the Great Commission with a passion to see every person complete in Christ through making disciples, maturing believers, and multiplying ministries. While being faithful in fulfilling the Great Commission we must focus on living out the Great Commandment. For through the great commandment those in the church and those outside will display the love that Christ has.”

“Our church is a kingdom agent, placed here at the will of God to be salt and light to people without a clue or a hope. It is a dynamic body of believers who exists to exalt the Lord and labor for his causes. It is a family of God building relationships among people and pointing them to the Heavenly Father.”

“Our success as an individual church isn’t going to be determined by the plans we have. It’s going to be according to the decisions we make and what we do to act upon those decisions.”
(Gene Mims)

“We can make our church an infirmary in a sin-sick world. But the goal of this church is not to be the infirmary. I’m glad the army has field hospitals where we can take our wounded and take care of them. Maybe you have been wounded and somebody has taken care of you in a field hospital. Still, the point of the army is not to have field hospitals but to have soldiers engaged in battle. The point of a church is not only to be a Christian critical care center but a spiritual army teeming with well-trained soldiers of the cross doing battle in the world.”
(Gene Mims)

2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 3)

2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 3)
This part was shared after relating the demographic stats and ministry index information prior to sharing the goals for this year's ministry.

Projection Transition
As I look out across this congregation, I see a congregation filled with the desire to be used of God. A congregation built upon deep and rich history. A history and heritage that reaches back several years. Today, all across America there are churches that cannot recall such a rich heritage as we have. The glorious make-up of our congregation is totally beautiful. The vastness of the experiences and journeys that each one of us has gone through serves as a powerful tool to the advancement of the kingdom of God. I believe that there will be literally hundreds if not thousands, of souls in heaven because of the ministry of our church! I believe that we’ll be amazed at the total of jewels that will be in heaven because of so many people allowing their lives to be used for the building of the Kingdom of God! I am amazed at the vast variety of people who call Life in Christ Fellowship their church. There is an enormous amount of treasure of talent that is contained in each of your lives. The beautiful deep goal to be what God desires you to be is so magnificent. The hunger in this body to win the lost, disciple believers and equip the saints is a powerful front force to what we must be and do for Jesus. I believe that we have only just seen a small portion of what God desires to do among us. Why you may ask? Because we serve the same Lord as yester years and He does not change!

When I arrived, I was filled with such a large amount of joy and fulfillment to be used of God here and to serve as your pastor! Many of you individually and together as the body of Christ, have brought to Debbie, I and our family great love and healing. While there have been and will be times of bewilderment and disorientation, I believe if each and everyone of us will practice to be patient with and forbearing toward each other in love, we will advance beyond any hindrances that may be attempting to sideline all that the church should and can be. I am filled with a high level of anticipation and belief. I so much want to do my very best for our church and our Lord! I desire to see souls to come to know the Lord in a personal and vibrant relationship. I desire for each of us to grow and discover God’s purpose for each of our lives, as designed by His divine wisdom. I desire to see adults and couples to make a deeper, life-changing and life-fulfilling commitment to Christ. For them to reach out and grasp a hold of the vision of our church. I desire to see a youth ministry to develop and grow to such a level, that it will continue to assist our youth to know Jesus Christ in a deeper relationship. A ministry from which pastors and missionaries would be called into service for our Heavenly King. A ministry that encapsulates children from the time of their birth through their college years. A ministry to help the youth understand the love of Christ. To help in leading them, each and everyone, to a life long relationship with Him. I desire to have a youth ministry that leaves no child behind.

So where do we go from here? This is a very big question and it should not be thought through lightly, for the answer reaches into eternity. Jesus instructed us as believers and disciples, to lay up treasurers in Heaven. So to do so, means we, as a church body, must fulfill the great commission, go make disciples”. To live out the great commandment “Love one another”. We must realize and remember in all we do as a church, that Christ came to make contact with people so to have an impact on them so to be connected to them. Also, we must keep Paul’s direction to the church in mind, when he said that to fulfill the law of Christ, we must have the same mind as Christ.

As we journey together, there will be times in which questions and uncertainties will arise. There will be times when we will venture a path that will cause uneasiness in our spirit. But as these times arise, we must be careful not label them as something that did not come from the leadership of the Holy Spirit. There will be times in which what has “always has been done”, should or will be no longer be done. There will be times new and out of the ordinary adventures will be pursued and done. It has been said and proven true, that the eight most deadly words for a church are, “We have never done it this way before”. There will be times that new areas of activity will cease to exist. Will everything that we do together be a flying success? Absolutely not! But just because it doesn’t work out how we would have anticipated it to, do not always mean it was the wrong thing to do. At the same time, because something seems to be working does not always mean it is the right thing to do or keep doing.

I am truly amazed at what God has done for us! He has richly blessed this church with great people. Each and every one has talents and is filled with great potential for the kingdom. I am truly blessed that God has allowed me the privilege of knowing you. I am greatly indebted to Him. While I am still in the infancy of pastorate here, I am unwaveringly convinced that God has great plans for us as a church! Everyone, and we all, each need to allow Him full access to our lives. I guarantee that He will not lead us astray. Nor will we be disappointed with the outcome.

2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 2)

This is the second excerpt from the 2007 State of the Church Address given at Life in Christ Fellowship. I hope that you may receive some inspiration as you read through it. What a great joy and honor to be used by God in the building of His Kingdom.



Projection
It is so easy to say, let’s just add another program or what we so often title “ministry”. By adding, we draw to the conclusion that this will take care of the issue of “faithfulness and fruitfulness.” A slippery slope that so many churches travel down is the belief that the next program/ministry is the sliver bullet. It will be the cure all. It will be the one that brings in the harvest. We need to realize programs come and go. There is always a new one waiting in the wings. I am not arguing against the development of programs or areas of ministry, but unless they are and continue to be “bringing people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, one that is growing, productive and fruitful”, we have miserably failed them. We need to ask ourselves, “Are people coming into vital and vibrant relationship with Christ through the things we do as a church?” If our answer is no to this question, the program must be either re-aligned or discontinued. Time is too short and people are too precious for us to be wasting time, energy, and resources. No matter how hard you kick a dead horse, it will not get up. Take the saddle off and put it on another. I do believe in ministry and programs only if they are meeting people’s true need, and that being, people are needing to be truly connected and a part of the Kingdom of God. We must be a Kingdom-building focused church. We must focus more on the being side of life versus the doing side. We can be doing all day long, but unless there is development of the being side, we are just shoveling dirt with a tablespoon. The doing must produce the being. Most of us, if not all, realize that this is the cycle we must have, the doing producing the faithful and fruitful being, then the being resulting in faithful and fruitful doing. But it has to start at the being.

Safe Pasture
All around us in our ministry community are people … families and individuals, who are looking for the true church. Though they may not realize that this is what they are searching for, but yet in turn they are searching. We as a church have a responsibility to assist these in finding safe pasture. In presenting this, I have in the past been accused of being too much of a dreamer and not being realistic. But this is my dream. “The presentation of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness of all that it truly is, to all people. To not predetermine the whom it is presented to.” One part of our calling is to the presentation. We must present the idyllic reality of “safe pasture”.

You ask,” What is safe pasture?” It’s a secure place where you feel deep connections with others, where you are known and encouraged and challenged. It’s an expansive place where you find profound meaning for your life and where you are helped in practical ways to live out that meaning. It’s a holy place where a holy God loves to make himself known, where he instructs his people, and where they come together to worship him for all that he is. It’s a place of love. A place of vitality, a place of change, a place of laughter and tears, and silence and loud praise. It’s a place that feels like home … because it is.

Safe pasture is a place of trust, a place where I can entrust my spiritual life to others in the confidence that they will lead me into an ever-deepening knowledge of God. I trust that they will not violate their call in the process, will not use my vulnerability for their own gain, and will not manipulate me to any end that leads me away from life with my Savior. Safe pasture is a place of protection. When I can trust my shepherds and can feel protected in my walk, then I am willing to follow them into the deeper and/or more difficult truths of Scripture. The earned trust that makes one “feel safe” validates the shepherd’s integrity.

Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, described safe pasture in these familiar words: “I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:9-10).”

Because Jesus is the good Shepherd, he provides his people with safe pasture – a place of safety, a place of freedom, a place of refreshment and abundance and life. It is not a place of loss or death or personal desolation. Still, this “safe pasture” should not be understood as a home always and forever free from attack from wolves or exempt from disease. Rather it is the place where true defense can be found. Jesus never leaves us with only ourselves or with our personal resources at our disposal. He remains always with us, defending us and enabling us to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. This is the kind of “safe pasture” Jesus means the church to provide.”
(“The Church You’ve Always Wanted”, E. Glenn Wagner)

As we reach out into our ministry community, we must remember to offer and provide this safe pasture. But for us to be able, we must find it our selves. We must enter and receive the unfathomable riches and blessings of the safe pasture that Christ is presenting to us. We, the church, are the continuation of the ministry of Christ. We are his body in this time and place.

2007 State of the Church Address (Excerpt Part 1)

The following is an excerpt from this year's State of the Church Address that I give each year in January. Just prior to this, I shared with the congregation the demographic stats of our Ministry Community. Our church is a 3 year old church plant from a result of a breaking away from a large 1800+ size congregation. We have a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel with a large base of people. In recent studies, it shows that nearly 67% of the population of our Ministry Community does not attend at any time or regularly any worship service. That represents nearly 120,000 people. People that matter to God, and therefore they matter to us. Please read through this, and share your thoughts with me. I do covet your prayers as we, Life in Christ Fellowship, proceed on this incredible journey.

I realize that this information may not be of importance or seem of any value to some individuals, but each of these numbers represent people, people who are loved by God and matter deeply to Him. By realizing the make-up of our “MINISTRY COMMUNITY”, it will assist us in progressing forward in the development of the ministries of our church.

(Share the Dream … Build the Team, Donald W. Morgan)

Numbers Count

“… many – say, “Numbers don’t count,” or “I’m not interested in numbers.” Really?

Numbers are not just numbers – they signify people and presumably we who are in service of Jesus Christ care about people. Presumably we care about their welfare, well being, and how the gospel might bless their lives. We care if people are being neglected or turned off by the church.

If we would study the most vital, dynamic and growing churches, we will discover that where there is numerical growth, there usually is spiritual growth. Those who dispute this haven’t looked closely and let themselves off too easily, excusing their apathy.

Often times, as more and more people come into the life of the church, they bring new vitality to the life of faith together. Not complacent, not satisfied with the things they used to be, they bring a dynamic that pushes the church forward toward greater faithfulness and spiritual growth. The more that are added to the flock, the higher the commitment of the church as a whole. Thus resulting in moving from being a low-commitment church to being a high-commitment church. In a word, the increasing quantity brings increasing quality. (Then the cycle begins; the higher the quality results in a higher quantity).

Rick Warren, in his book, The Purpose Driven Church, reminds us that we are called to be faithful and fruitful – not one or the other, but both. “God wants our church to be both faithful and fruitful. One without the other is only half of the equation. Numerical results are not justification for being unfaithful to the message, but neither can we use faithfulness as an excuse for being ineffective.”

Let me illustrate is this way. Picture with me, a quickly rising river. The crops and property around the banks of the river are in danger of being over run and being destroyed. The only chance for the survival is for dirt to be pushed up to the banks and piled high to prevent the water from causing the damage. So we jump to the scene and duty. I grab a tablespoon, one of you grab a shovel and yet another mounts onto the seat of a bulldozer. We three start moving dirt as fervently and aggressively as possible with the tool we have chosen. Let me ask this question. Who is being more faithful to the movement of the dirt to prevent the overflowing of the river? Is it I the one with the tablespoon, the one with the shovel or the one with the bulldozer? In all reality, we all three are equally faithful. However we are not equal to being fruitful. While there are demands presented that require faithfulness, there is also a call to be wise so to be fruitful.

So at times in the midst of being faithful, there is a call to evaluate are we being fruitful. If we are not being fruitful, then the right thing to do is to stop just being faithful, and look for ways to be fruitful and then employ them into action. To become fruitful in the application of faithfulness, the question to ask is, “What is the fruit that we desire see produced as a result of the faithfulness?” And, “Is what we are being faithful to, going to produce the fruit?”

“Somewhere, sometime, we need to come to grips with the Lord’s clear and compelling statement to Peter, and I believe, to you and me, as recorded in Matthew 16:18: “On this rock I will build my church.” Surely He was interested in His church growing and reaching more and more people. Surely He envisioned his movement as an ever-expanding reality by which more and more lives might be touched and transformed. How then can we, as followers of Christ, be content with a dormant, less than effective situation for the cause of Christ? How can we as disciples, dismiss ineffectiveness as of no consequence?

Somewhere, sometime, it’s important to come to grips with our Lord’s final and absolute command to His disciples, as recorded in Mathew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples.” He didn’t say, “Recycle the saints” or “Simply care for those who are already there,” although he surely did call us to feed His sheep. No, Jesus said, “Make disciples.” Be fishers of men, women and children – not – keepers of the aquarium. He has called us to be engaged in the mission.

The mission comes down to you and me. What do we regard as important? What do we believe is the nature of our calling as a church? What is the will of God for his church, Life in Christ Fellowship? And are we in His will? If we don’t believe our congregation is called to be effective, dynamic, and growing for the kingdom – neither faithfulness nor fruitfulness will happen – count on it!

But if we have the will to see our church grow, to help it become dynamic, and if we see ourselves called, not only to have a will, but also to be in the will of God, then our congregation can become dynamic. IT CAN! In short, where there is a will there is a way, and when we are in the will of God the way will be open.”